Some computing devices (e.g., mobile phones, tablet computers, etc.) may provide a graphical keyboard as part of a graphical user interface for composing text (e.g., using a presence-sensitive input device and/or display, such as a touchscreen). The graphical keyboard may enable a user of the computing device to enter text (e.g., an e-mail, a text message, or a document, etc.). For instance, a presence-sensitive display of a computing device may output a graphical (or “soft”) keyboard that enables the user to enter data by indicating (e.g., by tapping) keys displayed at the presence-sensitive display.
In some cases, the computing device may present a continuous-gesture graphical keyboard (sometimes referred to as a “gesture keyboard” or “combo gesture keyboard”) with which a user can interact by sliding his or her finger over regions of the presence-sensitive display that are associated with keys of the graphical keyboard, thereby essentially gesturing a word to be input to the computing device. In other words, the user may input an entire word in a single gesture by tracing over the letters of the word output at a presence-sensitive display. In this way, continuous-gesture graphical keyboards provide an input method that allows the user to enter a word or group of words with a gesture. As such, a continuous-gesture graphical keyboard may allow the user to achieve a certain degree of efficiency, especially compared to one-handed tapping of a presence-sensitive screen (e.g., a presence-sensitive screen operatively coupled to or integrated with a computing device).
However, some continuous-gesture graphical keyboards have certain drawbacks. For example, when a user performs a gesture on a presence-sensitive display to input a longer word or phrase, the amount of time needed to select the corresponding keys of the graphical keyboard may increase. In certain examples, this results in a corresponding increase in the probability that the user may perform an input error. Moreover, in practice it may be difficult for a user to both select the next letter in the word/phrase and contemporaneously determine whether to select from among a list of predicted words output for display at the computing device. Thus, various drawbacks of gesture keyboards may reduce the speed at which a user may enter text into a computing device therewith.